NCADI Admits Drug Prohibition Intent is Racist

Taken from the "National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information" Web site.

The history of nonmedical drug use, and the development of policies in
response to drug use, also extends back to the early settlement of the
country. Like alcohol, the classification of certain drugs as legal,
or illegal, has changed over time. These changes sometimes had racial
and class overtones. According to Mosher and Yanagisako, for example,
Prohibition was in part a response to the drinking practices of
European immigrants, who became the new lower class. Cocaine and
opium were legal during the 19th century, and were favored drugs among
the middle and upper classes. Cocaine became illegal after it became
associated with African Americans following Reconstruction. Opium was
first restricted in California in 1875 when it became associated with
Chinese immigrant workers. Marijuana was legal until the 1930s when it
became associated with Mexicans. LSD, legal in the 1950s, became
illegal in 1967 when it became associated with the counterculture.
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